Ruling Annulled due to Unverified Citations Using AI

Division I of the Civil and Commercial Court of Appeals of the City of Azul annulled an interlocutory decision issued by Family Court 2 of Olavarría in proceedings regarding the determination of legal capacity. The first instance decision had rejected the regulation of fees that the Official Curator had requested and grounded its core reasoning on certain legal scholarship and case law references. When reviewing the appeal, the Court of Appeals sought to verify those sources through the Departmental Library and the lower court itself, but the cited materials could not be found.

The court stated that an inadequate use of artificial intelligence tools could be inferred. It clarified that the use of AI is not prohibited but requires particularly responsible oversight. The court also referred to the risk of AI “hallucinations,” namely, false or inaccurate outputs that are presented in a convincing manner.

The court found that the unverifiable citations were an essential part of the reasoning of the challenged decision. As a result, it held that the duty to provide proper legal grounds had not been met, declared the decision null and void, and remanded the case to the lower court.

The decision highlights the need for human review whenever AI tools are used in legal work, especially in connection with statutory, scholarly, or case law references. For courts and legal professionals, the message is clear: AI may assist legal analysis, but it does not replace the duty to verify sources.